Review: Introducing Mr. Winterbourne

Introducing Mr. Winterbourne by Joanna Chambers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a delightful read! The characters are so well drawn and their relationship so compelling, it's difficult to believe it's all been done in one short story. I was rooting for them from page one, and the ending is so sweet and hopeful it's left me with a happy smile. :)

If you're a fan of Joanna Chambers' other works, you'll love this. If you haven't read her before, then let this be your first taste. You'll be in for a treat--Joanna Chambers is one of the best romance writers out there.

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Self-editing top tips

We all know that writing The End isn't the end. But what’s the best way to self-edit your manuscript before sending it off to beta readers, agents, or editors? There’s lots of advice online, but while I’m nervously awaiting my editor’s comments on Between the Lines (the follow up to Perfect Day), I thought I’d jot down my top five tips for doing that initial self-edit.

1. Put it in a drawer

Not a literal drawer, unless you actually write longhand. (Some people still do!) But once you’ve got your complete first draft—and I  mean the first draft you’re intending to show people—you need to put it aside for a week, a month, or even six months if deadlines aren’t an issue. And use that time well. Take care of all the things you didn’t have time for while writing (tackling the garden, doing paperwork, seeing friends). Do anything, in fact, to avoid thinking about the manuscript sitting in your drawer. What you’re trying to do is get some distance between yourself and your work so that when you come back to it, you can read it like a reader.

2. Read it like a reader

When you come back to your manuscript, read it straight through and resist the temptation to start tinkering. If you notice something you want to change, make a quick note and move on. I write using Word so I use the comment function at this stage, noting things like ‘delete this scene?’, ‘Boring’, ‘Check spelling of his name’. The key here is to keep reading, because you want to give yourself the reader's experience of your novel. It's the best way to spot pacing issues, plot holes, and problems with character arcs. Is your story suffering from a soggy middle? Is the pace so fast you’re missing character detail? Does the emotional payoff work? Reading it like a reader will help you identify those global issues.

3. Eliminate your writer’s ticks

Once you’ve made the changes from step two, it’s a good time to go through and eliminate your writer’s ticks. We all have them—some that follow us from book-to-book, some that crop up in one title only. These are over-used words and phrases that start jumping off the page with each repetition. For example, characters who are always nodding, sighing, blinking, or chuckling. Eye descriptions often fall into this trap—my beta reader picked up many mentions of ‘dark eyes’ in Between the Lines. Changing these descriptions, or just deleting them, is a great way to tighten up your writing.You will have your own ticks, but here's my personal hit list:

• a little
• almost
• seemed
• that
• suddenly
• nodded
• blinked
• pale
• probably

Regarding the first three—a little, almost, and seemed—these are words that can suck the impact right out of your writing.There are times when they’re exactly the right words, but always check your usage. For example, if you write ‘Josh arrived the next morning, seeming pale’ do you mean he appeared to be pale but wasn’t really? Or would ‘Josh arrived the next morning, ashen-faced’ have more impact?

4. Read it out loud

Probably best to be alone for this one! It takes time, but reading your whole manuscript out loud is a great way to spot unrealistic dialogue, missing words, and awkward sentence construction. You don’t need to put in an Oscar-winning performance, just speak the words aloud. You’ll be amazed by what you pick up.

5. Do a final read in a new format

I always find it helpful to read my manuscript in a new format for the final read-through. For me, that either means my e-reader or printing out a hard copy. A hard copy makes it easier to note any changes you want to make, but I find an e-reader to be closer to a read's experience and therefore more valuable.

By the time you’ve finished all that, you’ll have polished your manuscript as much as possible on your own and it’ll be ready for a new pair eyes. After which you’ll pull it apart, revise it, and start again at step one...

Meanwhile, I’ll go back to nervously waiting on revisions for Between the Lines.

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Perfect Day, my contemporary male/male retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, is published on 13^th August 2018.

Love doesn’t burn out just because the timing’s wrong. It grows. It never leaves.

When Joshua Newton, prodigal son of one of New Milton’s elite, fell in love with ambitious young actor Finn Callaghan, his world finally made sense. With every stolen moment, soft touch and breathless kiss, they fell deeper in love.

Finn was his future…until he wasn’t.

Love stays. Even when you don’t want it to, even when you try to deny it, it stays.

Eight years later, Finn has returned to the seaside town where it all began. He’s on the brink of stardom, a far cry from the poor mechanic who spent one gorgeous summer falling in love on the beach.

The last thing he wants is a second chance with the man who broke his heart. Finn has spent a long time forgetting Joshua Newton—he certainly doesn’t plan to forgive him.

Love grows. It never leaves.

Pre-order links here:

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Why we can't get enough Austen

Over the past several years we’ve seen a flood of Austen reimaginings. From Bollywood’s ‘Bride and Prejudice’ to ‘Lost in Austen’ and ‘Clueless’, Austen’s characters have found themselves far away from their Regency drawing rooms. And it’s not just screen adaptations. The Jane Austen Project from Harper Collins recruited big name authors to reimagine all six of Austen’s novels in contemporary settings. Excitingly, this year we’ll also be seeing a number of LGBT+ retellings—including my own, of course! 

But why Austen? What is it about her works that inspires writers to retell her stories over and over, to adapt them for the screen, and to transpose them into a world so markedly different from Austen’s?

Perhaps the most fundamental reason is that they work so well.

Austen’s heroines and heroes slip out of their muslin gowns or buckskin breeches and into a pair of jeans with ease. Unlike Dickens, whose characters shoulder a weight of social commentary, or the Bronte’s, whose characters are drenched in Victorian melodrama, Austen’s characters travel light. They leave her pages almost naked, ready to step seamlessly into the modern world. None of which is to imply that her characters lack depth. They are rich, fully developed people who readers find relatable and compelling even 200 years after Austen’s death. And that’s not an easy trick.

Hey, don’t I know you?

Austen’s ability to create characters that not only leap off the page through their dialogue but also feel fresh and real even two hundred years later is remarkable. Who hasn’t tried to escape a Miss Bates around the water cooler, or sat next to a Harriet Smith on the bus and listened to her obsess with her BFF over her latest boyfriend drama?

But just as importantly, they exist independently of the period in which they live. Their nineteenth century speech patterns and language aside, the characters talk and act like people you might meet at work, people who could easily be your friends, your family, or the love of your life. They feel like real people because Austen wrote real people. She didn’t write stereotypes or caricatures, and the only points her characters make are about fundamental human nature. “For what do we live,” asks Mr. Bennet, “but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” It turns out that, by and large, people are as risible today as they were two hundred years ago.

Spare me the details

“Mr. Bennet protested against any description of finery.” And so does Austen. Look as hard as you like and you’ll see no description of finery, or anything else, in Austen’s work. Even the delectable Darcy is only sketched as ‘tall’ and ‘handsome’. Austen’s characters reveal themselves in different ways, through their actions and words, and Austen allows them to earn our respect or ridicule accordingly. Which leaves readers plenty of room to interpret the characters as they choose, and so each generation can find something of themselves in her heroes and heroines.

It’s not only physical details that Austen avoids. She’s often criticised for the lack of social context in her work. Where are the conversations about the abolitionist movement, the wars with France, or the social unrest ravaging Regency England? Helena Kelly’s book Jane Austen, The Secret Radical makes a compelling argument that readers of the day would have read more subtly and knowingly than modern readers, that they would have understood more than we do about what Austen’s characters were and were not saying between the lines. (And let’s not forget that Austen was writing at a time of repressive sedition laws that restricted severely what she could print). Kelly’s book is a fantastic read and I recommend it thoroughly to any Austen fan.

But perhaps one of the side-effects for modern readers of being somewhat blind to Austen’s subtle social commentary is that her characters appear to be highly context-free. We can lift them from her pages and put them in our own world without losing anything essential. Better than that, we can allow them to interact with our own society and contextualise them in a way that reflects our world without it feeling forced.

Get me out of here!

If Austen’s novels have one consistent theme, it’s the heroines’ pursuit of freedom. Whether it’s Emma Woodhouse finding a way to marry and yet keep something of her independence, or Elizabeth Bennett finding the financial security her careless father failed to provide, Austen’s heroines start the novels trapped by society and circumstance and end them free—or as free as was possible for a nineteenth century middleclass woman. Perhaps Anne Eliot, consigned to an uncertain spinsterhood by poor choices and her vain, profligate father achieves the greatest freedom in the end. We can imagine Anne Wentworth accompanying her husband beyond the far horizon, seeing a world far beyond the claustrophobic constraints of Uppercross drawing rooms.

Enlightened as we see ourselves in 2018, we’re still bound by social conventions—race, class, sexuality, and gender all play their part in limiting our freedoms and opportunities. Perhaps that’s why Austen’s novels adapt so readily to an LGBT+ retelling; social attitudes toward the LGBT+ community still reflect many of the restraints nineteenth century England imposed on its inhabitants.

We’re not worthy

Austen was a genius. No doubt about it. She was a genius of observation, of dialogue, and of craft, and no re-telling or adaptation of her work will ever equal the original. If you haven’t read them, you’re missing out. But what a re-telling or an adaptation can do is have fun with beloved characters and stories, allow us to spend a little more time with them, and perhaps hint at what Austen may have been writing about had she been living today.

_________________________________________________________________________

Perfect Day, my contemporary male/male retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, is published on 13^th August 2018.

Love doesn’t burn out just because the timing’s wrong. It grows. It never leaves.

When Joshua Newton, prodigal son of one of New Milton’s elite, fell in love with ambitious young actor Finn Callaghan, his world finally made sense. With every stolen moment, soft touch and breathless kiss, they fell deeper in love.

Finn was his future…until he wasn’t.

Love stays. Even when you don’t want it to, even when you try to deny it, it stays.

Eight years later, Finn has returned to the seaside town where it all began. He’s on the brink of stardom, a far cry from the poor mechanic who spent one gorgeous summer falling in love on the beach.

The last thing he wants is a second chance with the man who broke his heart. Finn has spent a long time forgetting Joshua Newton—he certainly doesn’t plan to forgive him.

Love grows. It never leaves.

Pre-order links here:

Amazon

Kobo

Nook

Review: Cash Plays

Cash Plays by Cordelia Kingsbridge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cash Plays continues at the same pace as the first two books in the series, and if you loved them you’ll love this one too.

The mystery of the SoS takes a new turn, and the underlying fracture points in Levi’s and Jake’s relationship start to show. I especially appreciate how the growing conflict between them results from issues present in each character from the start of book one, rather than being imposed by external events. Makes the whole inevitable train-wreck all the more painful to watch.

Just like the first two books, Cash Plays left me wanting more. Luckily, more is on the way in September—if I can wait that long!


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Perfect Day - blurb and sneak peek!

First love conquers all in Perfect Day, a captivating contemporary male/male retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

Love doesn’t burn out just because the timing’s wrong. It grows. It never leaves.

When Joshua Newton, prodigal son of one of New Milton’s elite, fell in love with ambitious young actor Finn Callaghan, his world finally made sense. With every stolen moment, soft touch and breathless kiss, they fell deeper in love.

Finn was his future…until he wasn’t.

Love stays. Even when you don’t want it to, even when you try to deny it, it stays.

Eight years later, Finn has returned to the seaside town where it all began. He’s on the brink of stardom, a far cry from the poor mechanic who spent one gorgeous summer falling in love on the beach.

The last thing he wants is a second chance with the man who broke his heart. Finn has spent a long time forgetting Joshua Newton—he certainly doesn’t plan to forgive him.

Love grows. It never leaves.

***

There was one last perfect day.

High in the dunes on the east side of the bay, in the secret hollow that had been their haven all summer, Joshua lay with his head in Finn’s lap and watched the gulls wheel across the evening sky.

Happy laughter drifted from the other end of the beach where the season’s last visitors kept a tenacious hold on summer. Joshua felt the same, all too aware that life after this magical few weeks might spin out from beneath his feet.

“When we’re in LA,” Finn promised, “we’ll hang out on the beach all year.”

Joshua gazed up at him, at his sun-kissed skin and the face he loved. Freckles danced across the bridge of his nose, his eyelashes tipped with gold from spending too long in the sun, and that perfect bow of a mouth curved into a warm smile. “You won’t have time for the beach,” Joshua said, finding a smile of his own. “You’ll be too busy being a big-shot actor.”

Finn gave a self-deprecating laugh, but Joshua saw the dream in his eyes. “Nah,” Finn said, shaking his head. “I mean the odds of that ever happening… You know.”

They’d been through it a hundred times, but Joshua could go through it a hundred times more. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for Finn Callaghan. Of all the unknowns ahead, Finn’s inevitable success was the one thing Joshua didn’t doubt. Sitting up, he settled himself next to Finn and dug his toes into warm sand, squinting out across the sun-burnished ocean. “The odds are crappy,” he acknowledged, “for most people—those who lack talent, drive, and movie-star good looks.”

“Dude,” Finn said, embarrassed and pleased all at once.

His unfeigned modesty made Joshua’s heart soften and he nudged his shoulder against Finn’s. “You’re the real deal,” he said. “You’re going to be a star, Finn, surrounded by beautiful people all day long, and I’ll probably never see you except at movie premieres.”

Finn leaned into him, shaking his head. “You’ll be too busy dazzling everyone at Colburn to have time for pointless things like movie premieres.”

“I’ll make time. Now and then. Only for the major movies, obviously. With the big stars.”

Finn scooped up a handful of sand and let it run through his fingers. “Only for the A-listers, huh?”

“That’s right. You’ll have to make it worth my while. I’ll expect at least, um…” He ran through his tiny list of movie stars and came up wanting. “Brad…”

After a beat Finn turned to look at him, one eyebrow lifted. “Pitt?”

“Right. Yes, him.”

“Because you liked him in…?”

Joshua narrowed his eyes. “That old movie. The one we watched in your trailer.”

“Uh-huh. Which one?”

Laughter gleamed behind Finn’s bright eyes. It made Joshua smile as he floundered. “Um… Titanic?”

“Seriously?”

Flinging his arms wide, he yelled, “I’m the king of the world!” He grinned at Finn. “Right?”

“Right.” Finn fought a smile. “Except that was DiCaprio, you doofus.”

Joshua laughed—as if he could tell them apart. As if he cared. He only had eyes for Finn. 

“Whatever.” He flopped back onto the sand and gazed up at him. “You can introduce me to them both at some horrible Hollywood party you’ll be forced to attend.”

After a silent beat, Finn said, “Don’t want any of that without you, Josh.” He looked at him intently, in that way he had of making Joshua feel like the whole universe was spinning around them, as if they were right at the beating heart of it all. “Don’t want anything without you. You get that, right? You get that this—” he threaded their fingers together and held tight “—you and me? This is the real deal, Josh. I mean it. You’re it for me. You get that, right?”

“I do,” Joshua assured him. “These last couple months, this summer… Finn, it’s changed everything.”

Finn searched his eyes, a slight frown creasing his brow. “And what about your dad?”

“Soon.” He tensed guiltily. “I’ll tell him soon.”

“That’s what you said last week.”

“Tomorrow, then.” The prospect of telling his father about Finn, about his radical new plans for the future, had crouched like a storm on the horizon all summer. And no matter how hard he’d ignored it, it hadn’t gone away. He swallowed. “I’ll tell him tomorrow.”

“Will you—?”

“I don’t want to think about it now. I only want to think about us, Finn. Tell me about us.”

Finn’s expression warmed. “This is just the start for us, man. It’s like… It’s like we’re at the beginning of a road and it’s rolling out ahead of us, long and straight, and so fucking bright. I can see it, man. I can taste it.”

“Finn…” Joshua pulled him down next to him, touched their foreheads together. He wanted so much to see Finn’s gilded road, but when he closed his eyes all he could see was the gathering storm. “I love you,” he whispered urgently. “I love you more than anything, Finn. More than everything. Remember that.”

Finn smiled against his lips, trailed his fingers through Joshua’s hair and kissed him long and sweet. He smelled like sun cream and the ocean, like fresh air and summer. “This is the beginning, Josh. This is the beginning of everything for us.”

But of course it wasn’t. It was the end. It was the last golden hour of the last perfect day.

***

Perfect Day is out August 13th and is available for pre-order here! 

Review: Object of Desire

Object of Desire by Dal Maclean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Maclean’s novels are unputdownable. They’re the kind of books that distract you at work because you can’t stop thinking about the characters and the story and wondering what on earth happens next.

Object of Desire starts with one of my favorite angsty tropes—the bruised ex-lovers being forced to work together. The emotional angst of the main characters is palpable and drew me in from the start. Maclean masterfully interweaves the romantic thread with the intense psychological drama and mystery, leaving echoes and reflections all over the place. It’s marvellous, and clever. And it packs an emotional punch that you feel right in the pit of your stomach.

Maclean has the rare knack of making you fall in love with her flawed heroes from the first page, even when they’re making very bad choices. I loved both Tom and Will, their emotional tension was intense from the start and lasted right up to the very last page.

Good job there’s a third book on the way in this series, because I am seriously addicted.


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Review: Bitter Legacy

Bitter Legacy by Dal Maclean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic read. Full of emotion and tension, the romantic angst tied my stomach in knots in the best possible way.

The suspense plot is very strong, and when the reveals come they don’t feel out of the blue. The evidence is all there but I didn’t feel ten steps ahead of the characters at any point, which I really enjoyed. But it’s the romantic story that really gripped me. Jamie’s heartbreak is visceral and right to the end I wondered how he’d get his happy ever after—but when it came it felt absolutely right and well-earned, and was incredibly satisfying.

The writing was excellent, vivid but not distractingly showy. And it’s pretty hot, too, although the sex scenes are also really emotional which makes them all the more intense.

Basically, if you’re a fan of romantic suspense, do yourself a favour and get hold of Bitter Legacy. It’s one of the best I've read in the genre.


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